19 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun, under 5 mm of rain
- Jul, under 5 mm of rain
- Aug, under 5 mm of rain
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov, shaded
- Dec, shaded
From few records: 8 records in 7 grid cells. The records.
About the genus · Gladiolus
Gladiolus is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae).
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Gladiolus", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex, listed under the genus Gladiolus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (490 mm of 665 mm) falls in November to February, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.5 °C against a yearly mean of 18.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to August.
Rain
665 mm in the median year at the habitat, 490 mm of it November to February. Wettest month December at 145 mm, driest months (2 at 0 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 486 mm to 933 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 671 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 665 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 51 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.2 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 8.6 °C to 12.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.1 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 11.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 61% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Group. Listed under the genus Gladiolus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tuberous geophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
From few records: this habitat climate is read from 8 records in 7 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 14 °C in Jan and Feb to 27 °C in Jul and Aug; mean nightly low from 11 °C in Feb to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low. 665 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 7 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 14 / 13–15 | 14 / 13–14 | 15 / 14–16 | 17 / 16–18 | 20 / 19–22 | 24 / 23–26 | 27 / 25–29 | 27 / 26–29 | 25 / 24–27 | 22 / 21–23 | 18 / 17–19 | 15 / 14–16 |
| Night °C | 12 / 9–13 | 11 / 9–12 | 12 / 10–13 | 14 / 13–15 | 17 / 16–18 | 21 / 20–22 | 23 / 23–24 | 24 / 23–25 | 23 / 21–24 | 20 / 18–21 | 16 / 14–17 | 13 / 11–14 |
| Rain mm | 142 / 107–186 | 100 / 78–142 | 69 / 56–95 | 35 / 28–53 | 15 / 12–25 | 2 / 1–4 | 0 / 0–2 | 0 / 0–2 | 7 / 6–14 | 47 / 35–62 | 103 / 70–148 | 145 / 93–206 |
| DLI | 17 / 17–18 | 23 / 23–24 | 32 / 31–33 | 40 / 39–41 | 47 / 46–47 | 51 / 51–51 | 51 / 50–51 | 46 / 46–46 | 38 / 37–38 | 27 / 27–28 | 19 / 18–20 | 15 / 14–16 |
| RH % | 58 / 56–59 | 58 / 56–59 | 58 / 58–59 | 60 / 57–61 | 61 / 56–63 | 59 / 53–62 | 59 / 51–62 | 60 / 53–62 | 60 / 54–61 | 59 / 55–60 | 59 / 56–60 | 59 / 56–60 |
The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 24% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 1.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Antoine Guiguet, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Eleftherios Katsillis, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Achillea cretica Chamomile-leaved Lavender-cotton Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis
Fritillaria rhodia Rhodian Fritillary Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis
Crocus tournefortii Tournefort's Crocus Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis
Cistus parviflorus Small-flowered Rockrose Photo: CC BY, Marios Thoma
Colchicum macrophyllum Large-leaved Autumn Crocus Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios Katsillis
Muscari weissii Weiss' Grape Hyacinth Photo: CC BY, Eleftherios KatsillisOther Gladiolus 53 in the reference
Gladiolus alatus Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Cricket Raspet
Gladiolus angustus Painted-lady Photo: CC BY, Justin Ponder
Gladiolus atroviolaceus Steppe Gladiolus Photo: CC BY, avocat Gladiolus aureus Golden Glad 
Gladiolus brevifolius March pypie Photo: CC BY, Andrew Gillespie
Gladiolus × byzantinus Iridaceae Photo: CC0, Robert H. Wardell
Gladiolus candidus Iridaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Susan Brown
Gladiolus cardinalis New Year-lily Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Rebelo
Gladiolus carinatus Blue Afrikaner Photo: CC BY, Charleen Brunke
Gladiolus carmineus Hermanus gladiolus Photo: CC BY-SA, magriet b
Gladiolus carneus Broadleaf painted-lady Photo: CC BY-SA, Barbara le Roux
Gladiolus caryophyllaceus Pink Afrikaner Photo: CC0, author not stated all 54 ›Names & registers
Also known as Gladiolus communis var. longispatheatus; Gladiolus illyricus var. anatolicus. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 36.00_28.125, lapse-corrected +94 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (24% land), so no cold floor is shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulesopenalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.